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EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO 

PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION 
TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

TRADES 
AND PROFESSIONS 



BY 

GEORGE HERBERT PALMER 

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY EMERITUS 
IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY 




HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 



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COPYRICHT, 1914. BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



trfje »ibtr«ft>e l$nii 

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 

JAN -2 1915 

©CI.A3930g« 
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CONTENTS 

Editor's Introduction . . . • . v 

Trades and Professions .... 3 

Outline 35 



k 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

The teachers of the public schools perform their 
work with high-minded intention. It matters 
little what motives led them, as youths of nine- 
teen or twenty, to enter the teaching service of 
the State; once enrolled, they go about their busi- 
ness with devotion. The need to earn a living, 
the pride of economic independence, or the de- 
sire to follow a socially respectable occupation, 
may have brought them to the door of the school- 
house, but once inside they are firmly gripped 
by the ideals of the teaching service. There is 
something in the contact with childhood, some- 
thing in the miracle of human growth, something 
in the transformation of the children of all the 
world into American citizens, which soon inter- 
ests the newest recruit at teaching, and enHsts 
him for the full and willing sacrifice that the pub- 
lic school service demands. It is for this reason 
that one can say that the half-million teachers 
of the United States are its most devoted public 

Y 



I 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

servants. No other large group of public em- 
ployees can match the average of fine conscience 
with which they do their work. 

Yet'in spite of our imgrudging praise of the 
ideaUsm of teachers, the pubHc is not completely 
pleased with the schools and their products. 
Indeed, it must be said that the teachers them- 
selves are far from being satisfied with their own 
service. Everywhere there are evidences of new 
protests and aspirations in the teaching profes- 
sions. The teachers in the grades unite to gain 
a higher wage, to estabUsh annuities for old age, 
or to add stabiHty to tenure; they plead for the 
right to exercise initiative and discretion in the 
management of their own classrooms, and ask 
to be heard in the general councils of the school 
department. The supervisory officials, too, ask 
for an expert status that will allow them to meet 
with a freer will the difficulties of school organ- 
ization and administration; they survey the 
community in order to register accurately its 
needs and demands, and measure with scientifi- 
cally derived standards the worth of teaching. 
Somehow, in the face of aU these disturbances, 
vi 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

agitations,, and gropings, professional high- 
mindedness and the eagerness to serve seem not 
of themselves adequate. Professional discussion 
reveals a thousand attempts to meet the diffi- 
culties of which the teachers and superintendents 
are now for the first time aware. 

In such a situation, the need is for a body of 
guiding principles. We ought to know what 
society requires of the school. That is initial. 
We ought, too, to have a sympathetic apprecia- 
tion of boys and girls. Without personal con- 
sideration, no high work is done with hmnans. 
But we require finally a clear sense of the nature 
of our own workmanship, not merely as to its 
technique, but also as to its spirit. To compre- 
hend the spirit with which the work of teaching 
must be done is to pave the way for growing 
sanely. The clear analysis and definition of pro- 
fessional life which this volume presents will 
be of imending worth to those who would carry 
fundamental values and a far-reaching perspec- 
tive into their professional thought. 

There are some particular things that are of 
special pertinence to our present educational 
vii 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

situation. At the very outset, we need, once and 
for all, to perceive the true relation between social 
service and monetary remuneration in profes- 
sional work. In spite of an impression to the 
contrary, it is really quite difficult to unify the 
teachers in a propaganda expressed in money 
terms. The profession has many austere ideal- 
ists who hold that a profession of teaching ought 
not of itself to lay any stress on money pay. 
Being ascetics they are quiet about their views, 
and are discoverable only through the fact that 
they will not cooperate in the fiscal program of 
reformers. These need to see their own half- 
truth beside the other; to see that, while money 
can be no major end of teaching, it is a necessity 
ennobled by its proper use as means. There is 
among us another group, those who have felt 
with overkeenness the pinch of cultural poverty 
caused by slender financial means, or who have 
felt their neighbors' low esteem for the teaching 
wage. These make paramount the professional 
policies that look to improvement in the fiscal 
status of teachers, omitting or underemphasiz- 
ing issues that touch superior teaching service. 
viii 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

This group needs to understand that the con- 
certed attempt to federate groups of teachers 
with trade unions is merely an effort to depro- 
fessionalize teaching without rendering any sub- 
stantial assistance to labor. 

It would also be a considerable gain if all edu- 
cational officials could really be convinced that 
there is a coincidence of interest among all hu- 
man factors working in the school situation. What 
the public desires in the schools, the schoolmen 
really wish to give; what the teachers request 
to make classroom service congenial is really 
the best way to gain what the superintendents, 
in the last analysis, demand. A few cases will 
illustrate the thought. What the public calls the 
"lock-step" in the schools is exactly what the 
teacher dreads as destructive of his own initia- 
tive — the centralized, uniform, and rigid super- 
vision from above. The superintendent, in his 
haste to get the final product, teaching, fails to 
see that teachers, facing varjdng conditions, must 
use differing means. Again, is not the poverty, 
which teachers feel they can no longer endure, 

merely their own recognition of the fact that they 

• 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

cannot participate in human institutions with 
that degree of fulkiess and fineness required to 
develop the cultural richness of personaHty 
which parents wish in the teachers of their chil- 
dren? Could parents really see this coincidence 
of interest would they not be more deeply in- 
terested in the teacher's salary? Is not the super- 
intendent's craving for an expert status merely 
his aspiration to render that efficiency which 
the public is always demanding in its more criti- 
cal moments? The interests of every hiunan unit 
in the teaching profession are, in the long run, 
coincident with those of every other. The well- 
being of the teaching profession as a whole is 
one with that of the pubHc. Fortunate we shall 
be if this is clearly perceived, for then we shall 
have two roads to every journey's end, and many 
hands to carry the burdens. 

Finally, it will be a great advantage to teachers 
if they will reaHze how impotent they are when 
working in isolation from all their profession 
knows and does from day to day. Time was when 
teachers might gather together the best that their 
colleagues had done, and go to their classrooms 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

fairly certain that they were on the highway of 
progress. This can be true no more. We are 
far removed from the simple and undifferen- 
tiated tasks of the teacher in the one-room coun- 
try school. We have evolved great systems of 
education with expanded and complicated re- 
sponsibilities, which become speciaHzed assign- 
ments to different groups of persons. Under 
existing conditions the need of correlation has 
outstripped the teacher's capacity for spontane- 
ous cooperation. Something far-reaching and 
deliberate must be employed to keep teachers 
working together in the fulfillment of the en- 
larged plan. 

Many of the difficulties which now confront 
the teaching profession arise from the fact that 
the specialized fimctionaries of the schools have 
little appreciation of each other, and therefore 
offer Httle mutual support. The administrator, 
engrossed with the mechanisms for easy school 
management, loses his grip on teaching conditions 
and begins to obstruct the teaching function 
for which the schools were devised. The teacher, 
on his side, forgets the contribution of the super- 
xi 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

intendent, who has relieved him of the daily 
need to face public criticism and to work with 
a scant school tax. Thus the classroom instructor 
grows indifferent to the consequences of good 
and bad school legislation, organization, and 
administration; and loses his impulse to aid the 
executive leaders of the profession, who strive 
to improve the fundamental backgrounds of the 
teacher's work. Instances of similar professional 
isolation might be cited in large niunber. These 
suffice to illustrate the point at hand. We cannot 
be members of a single profession until we have 
common appreciations of educational problems 
and common modes of cooperating toward the 
solution of the same. Without unity of under- 
standing and action we are merely members of 
so many different groups of speciaHsts who feel 
only a slender common concern with schools. 

The educational profession as a whole must 
soon grasp the principle that cooperation is in- 
creasingly necessary as the tasks within schools 
become more specialized. Where men contribute 
only parts, there is the constant practical de- 
mand to provide a continuous process of assem- 
zii 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

bling. It must be frankly admitted that the 
teaching profession is weakest to-day on the 
corporate side. Its units are devoted and unself- 
ish men and women. In spite of every wrong 
condition, they are fascinated by their work and 
would not be happy elsewhere. The joy of their 
social servantship is more to them than riches. 
They eagerly seek the enlargement of their own 
powers. But an aggregation of fine-souled teach- 
ers does not make a profession, — at least not a 
profession adequate to meet current responsi- 
biUties. In a sense the most important and in- 
clusive truth presented in the masterly essay 
which follows is the one which insists that we 
shall find "that superiority to our own detached 
selves, which comes only through whole-hearted 
loyalty to a profession.** 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 



i 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS^ 

What is a profession, and how does it differ from 
a trade? We teachers pride ourselves on being 
professional people and altogether repudiate the 
notion that we are mere tradesmen. But do we 
quite understand what we mean by the distinc- 
tion? It is important we should. A clear under- 
standing of it will, I beheve, dehver us from some 
of the petty hardships of our work or even carry 
us on through these to discover its exceeding 
glory. 

The subject is one unfitted for oratory. Re- 
sounding sentences and upHfting appeals do not 
belong here. In this discussion we are to deal with 
delicate matters, difficult to trace, matters which 
oblige me to call on you for strenuous and con- 
tinuous attention and on myself for the plainest 
possible speech. Perhaps I shall most easily lead 
you to comprehend the subtle though weighty 

1 An address delivered before the University of the State 
of New York at its fiftieth annual convocation in Albany, 
October 22, 1914. 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

distinction if I bring you to it in much the same 
way in which I originally came upon it myself. 

Years ago as a young man I spent a winter in 
Italy and fell seriously ill. An Italian physician 
was called. I became warmly attached to him, 
admired his skill, and at length was able to say 
to my nurse, "He has actually cured me. The 
next time he comes I am going to tell him so and 
ask for his bill.'* She drew back with horror, 
"Oh, you would not insult the kind gentleman." 
"Insult him? No, indeed," I said. "Only express 
my gratitude and discharge my obligation." 
"But," she persisted, "he is not a tradesman. 
He makes no charge. He does not work for 
money, and you must not let it appear as if he 
did." "Still," I argued, "he has his living to 
earn. Does he not accept fees from his patients? " 
"Certainly, certainly," she said, "and of course 
you will offer him something to show you are 
grateful, a gratuity. But he could not make out 
a bill." All this you will understand occurred a 
great many years ago. 

It set me thinking. I wondered if there was any 
similar sensitiveness in other professions. Then 
4 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

I remembered how in ancient times when teach- 
ing first arose and bands of wandering scholars 
called "sophists'^ or "wise" men sought to en- 
lighten the Greek youth, particularly at Athens, 
they were denoimced by Socrates, Plato, Xeno- 
phon, and other high-minded men on a charge 
not merely of misleading the young, but of being 
so depraved as to ask money for instruction. 
They actually took pay for teaching, as if truth 
were a possession of theirs which they could 
peddle out and on which they could set a market 
price. What impiety! said Socrates and Plato. 
Even in our time, I find traces of this horror of 
the professional man's seeking pay. It is bad 
form for a lawyer or a doctor to advertise. Ad- 
vertising generally raises one's income. But that 
is the reason why it lowers a man's professional 
standing. Professional men should not be look- 
ing after profits, annoimcing themselves traders. 
The wares of doctors and lawyers are not com- 
modities of the market. So, too, a while ago it 
was not uncommon for an author, if a sensitive 
soul, to decline payment for his books. The most 
popular poem in our language, Gray's "Elegy," 
5 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

was sent to the publisher, Dodsley, who eagerly 
accepted it and offered Gray a substantial sum. 
But Gray recoiled. Not at all. He had written 
it for no such purpose, and not a penny would he 
accept. Why, only within the last three years has 
there been payment of members of the EngHsh 
House of Conunons. A long agitation and a radi- 
cal ministry were necessary to bring it about. 
In America to-day some of our most important 
public business is carried on by commissions of 
unpaid experts. Nor does the time-taking and 
responsible work of our boards of college trustees 
ever receive compensation. 

We may say, then, that all down the ages, di- 
minishing, it is true, in degree, there has been a 
feeling that certain classes in the community 
should hold themselves aloof from pay. The trader 
seeks it, the professional man does not. I do not 
think this feeling regards money itself as foul, 
tainting the hand that touches it. The possession 
of it is generally counted honorable, even the open 
pursuit. He who enters business has no shame in 
announcing that he hopes to enrich himself; and if 
he acquires riches without trickery, he commands 
6 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

respect. It is true we often hear laboring-men 
clamor against those who possess money; but so 
far are the clamorers from objecting to money 
that they complain that they do not receive a 
sufficient share. Indeed, one who enters business 
with any other aim than that of making money is 
apt to be condemned. I have repeatedly heard it 
called unfair for a lady of means to become a mil- 
liner or to take orders for delicate embroidery. 
She is popularly thought to have no right in the 
ranks of trade unless she needs money. Against 
entering to obtain this there is no objection. On 
the other hand, though a professional man must 
not aim at money, he is expected to reach a cer- 
tain competence, and probably the incomes of 
the professional and commercial classes do not 
on the whole greatly differ. Where, then, lies the 
curious contrast between the two, and how can 
a moneyed line be traced along the gulf that 
parts them? 

Reflecting on the puzzle, I come to this conclu- 
sion: the professional man expects to receive 
money, and ordinarily feels that he receives too 
little. Money, however, enters his life in a dif- 
7 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

ferent way and for a different end. He does 
not, for example, do ''piece work,'' as we may 
say, so much for so much. How awkward it 
would be if he did! I summon a doctor to my 
bedside; and after he has worked over me a while 
he says, *'My fee is two dollars. I believe I have 
given you about two dollars' worth of attention 
and will leave." Or the minister says, "My sal- 
ary is but eight hundred dollars. So I have 
written sermons of an eight hundred dollar qual- 
ity. Do not expect better ones till next year, 
when my salary rises." Or if you teachers come 
upon some exceptional pupil whose ambition out- 
runs his class, do you draw back and say, "I 
was paid only for ordinary pupils and cannot 
attend to your demands? For a dollar extra 
I would gladly push you onwards." If any of 
these three professionals should speak so, we 
should be sure they did not understand their 
calling. Yet exactly in this way the tradesman 
should speak. When I buy cloth of him and he 
finds he has given me two yards and a half instead 
of two yards, neither of us is shocked at his say- 
ing, "Well, I must charge you fifty cents more for 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

that." He assesses his pajnnent by the piece, as 
a proportional affair. That is not the case in the 
professions. 

How, then, in them is money given or received 
at all, if it is not to be regarded as payment for 
goods rendered? It is seen that the professional 
man must live while doing work which is mani- 
festly of value to the public, and accordingly a 
stipend, fee, honorarium, or salary is provided 
to cover the expenses of that mode of life which 
is thought appropriate for him; the kind of Hfe 
and the consequent scale of salary being de- 
signed to secure three essential elements in his 
work, namely, freedom, efficiency, and dignity. 
These elements, and not money, are what the 
professional man and his public regard. In com- 
parison with them money is only incidental and 
auxiHary. So long as he has a due degree of free- 
dom, is able to work with full efficiency, and can 
maintain the dignity which his calling demands, 
his mind is discharged from monetary considera- 
tions. 

But because the public is niggardly, or perhaps 
unskilled in reckoning what these essentials of 
9 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

professional work require, the professional mind 
is in fact continually distracted with thoughts of 
money, and necessarily so; for while money is 
only a condition of matters more important than 
itself, it is a conditio sine qua non. A teacher with 
no money in his pocket cannot be free. If he is 
not sure whether he can pay his board bill next 
week, he will be pinched by that anxiety in the 
classroom, and his work will suffer. He cannot 
teach well with a divided mind. Through a com- 
petent income his thoughts should be left free to 
fasten on his teaching rather than on his purse. 
Worry dulls; dulls one who for his pupils' sake 
should be kept abounding and free. To preserve 
his highest efficiency a teacher should be able from 
time to time to escape from work, move about 
in other fields, become a simple human being, and 
accept the fervent mterests of all mankind as 
his own: that is, he needs occasional vacations 
and sabbatical years; needs books, recreation, 
society, all in the interest of highest efficiency. 
Whatever of these is poured into him will come 
out as enrichment for his pupils. Yet all these 
things require money. 

lO 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

A certain dignity, too, is proper for those who 
work in the public service, and toward this money 
helps. We sometimes imagine that to influence 
our pupils most we should put ourselves on their 
level and be hail-fellow-well-met with them. 
Certainly we should be affable, ever showing a 
friendly spirit and keeping access between them 
and us constantly open. But, after all, ennobHng 
influence comes chiefly from above. We must 
look up to one who is to form our ideals, and no 
one of easy familiarity will ever be of the same 
consequence as one who commands our respect 
through being a little removed from us. Now there 
is danger that the dignity which belongs to our 
calling, that dignity by which we are to exalt our 
pupils, may be damaged if we come before them 
in seedy coats, battered hats, and evidently medi- 
tating how we are to obtain our living. That 
is not a dignified attitude. Rightly, therefore, 
do we who have knowledge and the young in our 
keeping demand a salary that will insure our 
freedom, efficiency, and dignity. And what I have 
said of "our" profession is, I believe, applicable, 
with fitting adjustments, to the other professions. 
II 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

All need money, often large sums, as what I may 
call a negative condition of their work. It is not 
their primary aim, but without it that aim can- 
not be reached. 

As I look over the ranks of teachers I find that 
for the most part they are working on a scale of 
salary which is uneconomical for the community, 
because restrictive of their freedom, efficiency, 
and dignity. A few years ago I visited nine of the 
Western colleges, took a small part in their in- 
struction, and so became tolerably acquainted with 
their inner organization. In few of them was the 
salary of the full professor above two thousand 
dollars. In several that of the president was but 
twenty-five himdred dollars, and in one the presi- 
dent, receiving a salary of twenty-five hundred 
dollars, paid back to the trustees six hundred 
dollars for his house. On such incomes teachers 
cannot do their best work. We expect, properly 
expect, that our calling shall not expose us to 
poverty. A result much better than that we 
cannot anticipate. No one should devote him- 
self to teaching with any other thought than 
that his life will never rise considerably above the 

12 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

edge of want. But I think we may fairly claim, 
in the interest of the public as well as of ourselves, 
that our salaries shall not sink below that edge, 
and that there may even be a few prizes offered 
above it. 

Fortimately the justice of this claim is now 
more generally felt, and college presidents are 
ever3rwhere attempting to raise funds for the in- 
crease of salaries. These they now perceive to be 
more effective than buildings in drawing students, 
fashioning them to manhood, and winning honor 
for the institution that trained them. Whether, 
therefore, we care for money or scorn it, we ought 
in the interest of education to use our utmost in- 
fluence toward raising the salaries of teachers. In 
some other professions I suspect similar condi- 
tions prevail. 

Hitherto I have spoken only of the negative 
conditions of our work, the conditions of freedom, 
efficiency, and dignity, without which it becomes 
impossible. But let these all be present, positive 
interests attracting us to our work will still be 
needed. What, then, are these positive induce- 
ments to a professional life which distinguish it 
13 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

from the commercial? They are many, but let us 
confine our attention to-day to the three prin- 
cipal ones. I understand that we become profes- 
sional men, and especially teachers,— for I regard 
teaching as the greatest of the professions, — be- 
cause we wish to exercise our powers, with a view 
to benefiting the community, and in loyalty to 
a growing brotherhood. These three controlling 
purposes, however darkly expressed here, set a 
sharp contrast between the mental attitudes of 
the professional and the commercial man. The 
attainment of them is the one reward he seeks. 
All other payment is merely collateral. Let me 
say a few words in regard to each. 

Strictly speaking, every sound professional 
man, every sound teacher at least, is engaged in 
his work for the fun of the thing. I became a 
teacher because on the whole I Uked this better 
than anything else. It suited me, and it has suited 
me better the longer I have taught. Sometimes I 
think I should hardly care to Uve if I were not a 
teacher. From my height of teaching I look down 
on other struggling mortals, busy with their in- 
ferior interests, and I do not think much of them. 
14 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

Many years ago I wrote that Harvard College 
pays me for doing what I would gladly pay it for 
allowing me to do. And this was only a vivacious 
statement of the general principle that the com- 
pensation of the professional man is measured 
by his inner outgo and not Uke the tradesman's 
by his external income. Conscious of our powers, 
we see in some profession an opportunity to exer- 
cise them, and to it we turn with an eagerness 
which gives zest to severe toil. So one becomes 
a painter because he wants to paint, a scientific 
man because he wants to know, a teacher be- 
cause he wants to practice his deHcate art of 
impartation. Such are the fundamental desires 
of good professionaHsm. The notion of benefit- 
ing somebody comes afterwards. Primarily we 
are moved by the feeling in our bones that we 
were made to do just this thing. In all that is 
worthy, a belief in predestination attends the 
best results. " To this end was I born and for this 
cause came I into the world,'' said the greatest of 
teachers. 

Some candid teacher may reply, "Yes, I recog- 
nize something of that sort in myself, but you ex- 
15 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

aggerate. Often it is not in me, sometimes I even 
feel bored. Again and again I wish I were out of 
teaching and in some other profession." I must 
sadly acknowledge that this is the way with us 
all. We fluctuate, and find our work first-rate 
only in those blessed seasons when the passion 
for it is upon us. But determination can lengthen 
these seasons and make them more secure. Al- 
most everything on which we put our mind, 
studying it long enough to explore its interior, will 
disclose its attractions. The trouble is the moment 
we begin to feel uncertain whether we care for 
our profession and detect in it that irksomeness 
which every noble work contains, we are apt to 
turn our attention away and seek relief elsewhere. 
But permanent reUef can be had only by turning 
right toward our job, finding out all that it con- 
tains, discovering its fresh possibilities, seeing how 
many sides of us have not yet gone into it, and 
letting it draw on us for aU it will. The teacher 
like everybody else, must learn to distinguish 
between his moods and his predominant aims, 
and hold himself believingly to the latter through 
all the vagaries of the former. Our times of suc- 
i6 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

cess are alone trustworthy, revealing as they do 
our capacities and the joyous fitness which may 
be brought about between them and our work. 
Expression of ourselves cannot be had in an in- 
stant. It is an affair of time and growth, though 
a half-blind consciousness of the direction in 
which it may be found is what prompts the first 
step toward it. 

But how different from this professional attitude 
is his who works for pay! With him the activity 
is merely instrumental, money the object. With 
the professional man money is instrumental, the 
employment of his powers the aim. Something 
disagreeable needs to be done. It is nothing I care 
to do. But doing it is less disagreeable than going 
longer without money. I accordingly undertake 
it, receive the specified payment, and am content. 
A large part of the work of the world is of this 
kind. The laborer goes to his factory, his gravel- 
pit, his shop, not ordinarily, I suppose, because 
he finds there the form of exercise, the type of 
interest, which engages him most. He must have 
a breakfast to-morrow. Very well, he will endure 
this toil in order to eat that breakfast. A pro- 
17 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

fession, on the other hand, if rightly entered, is no 
obnoxious but a glad affair, being the channel 
through which what is best in us is provided a 
natural outgo. The work itself is our reward, for 
each day in it we gain a Httle greater mastery of 
ourselves. All we need is to be supported while 
at work. Pay is desirable. So much, at least, as 
shall give fullest freedom, steady efficiency, and 
that honor which should ever accompany excel- 
lence. But money is not the main thing. What 
we are thinking of is the chance afforded to do 
what we are best fitted to do. 
i Still, nothing in the world is good which is not 
socialized. No one can live for himself with per- 
manent satisfaction. If as a teacher I seek merely 
to exercise my own powers, heedless of my stu- 
dents, my powers will not be exercised. Regard 
for another is a factor in the regard for self. The 
two cannot be divorced. When we attempt it, 
each perishes. 

So I was obliged to specify a second aim of the 

professions as benefit to the community. Need, 

want, suffering, are all around me, and, full of 

pity, I dedicate myself to bringing about better 

i8 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

conditions. All the professions have this redemp- 
tive character. The minister nnds men belittled 
by sin, and persuasively proclaims the infinite 
mercy of God and his readiness to lead whoever 
trusts him into abounding life. The doctor is dis- 
tressed over our aching bodies, and would relieve 
them of their pains. The lawyer — the upright 
lawyer — perceives the tangle in which justice is 
apt to present itself, and sets himself to find the 
straight path and to protect those who walk in it. 
And we teachers, seeing the misery which attends 
a lack of knowledge, make it our business to war 
with ignorance and to furnish the aspiring young 
with that knowledge which opens to them happy 
and powerful lives. The scientific man and the 
artist are redeemers too, in their several modes. 
No less than we they would save mankind from a 
low order of living. This passion of redemption 
should fill us teachers and make us insist that 
whatever benefits we receive in our work shall 
never be simdered from those which we bestow. 
And since throughout the professions our own 
gains from practice go hand in hand with the 
gains of him whom we would redeem, we should 
19 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

be foolish to guard our giving, restricting it by 
fixed measure, so much for so much, as do trades- 
men. They part with precious goods and justly 
claim compensation for their loss. We have no 
other merchandise than ourselves. The more of 
this people will take, the better we like it. Let my 
students, then, use me to the full. I shall incur no 
loss. By their demands I get the very chance I 
want. When at the close of the prescribed hour 
my pupils crowd about my desk, asking for fur- 
ther explanation and disposed to develop the 
subject of my lecture, I am pleased. And if I see 
that these pupils are accepting my guidance, 
adopting the ideals which I have formed for my- 
self, and tr5dng to adapt them to their less ma- 
ture lives, I feel myself rewarded. In our work 
altruistic and egoistic profits coincide. 

There is always danger that the public mind 
will become confused on this point and assume 
without reflection that the methods applicable in 
the professional and commercial spheres are the 
same. Under the delusive call of the half-under- 
stood word "efficiency,'' a kind of epidemic swept 
over the educational world a few years ago. 
20 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

Teachers were ordered to fill out blanks reporting 
the detailed amounts of their work, with a view 
to adjusting salaries accordingly. In this reckon- 
ing quantity was to be everything; quahty did not 
count. How many hours did we teach? How 
much time was given to preparing a lecture? 
How much to administration? How much to 
reading written exercises? How much to meet- 
ings with students? Now it is evident that if we 
are engaged on "piece work" and are to be paid 
so much for so much, these inquiries are of first 
consequence. They are precisely those which 
every sensible merchant makes of his employees. 
But it is equally evident that any teacher willing 
or even able to answer such questions demonstrates 
his unfitness for his place. When preparing a lec- 
ture shall I keep my eye on the watch and pause 
when it shows the amount of time I am paid for? 
Or shall I, through my interest in the subject, 
press on exploring it, regardless of time spent. 
When a student brings me his perplexities shall 
I answer those only which can be included in the 
compensated quarter-hour? There is no surer 
way of degrading our profession than to put it 

21 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

under mercantile rules. A teacher should be 
chosen on grounds of scholarship, experience, 
and professional spirit, and then be trusted. 
Inspection and measurement check his inclina- 
tion to say to his pupils, ^'Here am I. Take me. 
For your sakes I am here. Take all of me you 
want." 

But besides the desire of the professional 
man to exercise his powers and so to realize him- 
self in his work, besides his wish to seek out the 
needy and supply their wants from his own abun- 
dance, — besides the inevitable blending of these 
two aims, — I mentioned a third, but expressed 
it in rather enigmatic terms. I said that every 
professional man Hved in loyalty to a growing 
brotherhood. This phase I must now explain. 

It is significant that we do not say "a pro- 
fessional." Even the word "professor" takes on 
a special meaning and indicates a certain aca- 
demic rank. Our common term is "a member of 
a profession," plainly indicating that he who de- 
serves to be called such is no longer a merely in- 
dividual person. He has merged his individuaHty 
with that of others and now belongs to a troop, 

22 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

a company, a brotherhood who possess a com- 
mon stock of knowledge, common purposes, 
common standards, which are continually grow- 
ing and to which each member of the brother- 
hood is expected to conform and contribute. To 
the criticized maintenance and advancement of 
this brotherhood all else is subordinated. You, 
for example, are here to-day because as members 
of the teaching profession you know you cannot 
do your work well out of your own heads. To a 
large degree you are dependent on those who are 
teachers already. Kjiowledge of our beautiful art 
has been accumulating from generation to genera- 
tion and now furnishes the common stock from 
which we all draw. Accordingly we write books 
about teaching, establish educational journals, 
hold assemblies like this, and coming together 
report what each has discovered to increase the 
power of our common calling. Each speaks 
here not of "my" profession, but of "our" pro- 
fession, and labors to advance rather 'it than 
himself. 

Notice, for example, how medicine has ad- 
vanced in our time. Each physician is alert for 
23 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

discovery. Continually engaged in research, he 
considers that whatever he learns does not be- 
long to him, but must be reported at once in the 
medical journals and be at the disposal of all. 
If a physician attempts to lock a discovery up 
to himself by patenting, we look askance at him, 
count him not quite professional, and declare 
that he does not understand the loyalty due to 
his colleagues. Just so is it with the minister, the 
artist, the scientific man, with all indeed who 
engage in professional work. Each draws from a 
common stock of accumulated knowledge and 
ideals, and feels an obligation to contribute to that 
common stock. Even the professional robber, 
whom we contrast with the amateur thief, gets 
his designation because we believe his evil in- 
genuity and daring are not all his own, but have 
been studied and formulated in a league of 
rascals. 

This loyalty to a growing brotherhood, at least 
when its aims are worthy, exalts us and imparts 
to each a dignity which comes in no other way. 
There is a great saying of Goethe's, "Be a whole, 
or join a whole." The first half of it is a mere 
24 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

counsel of perfection which does not regard pos- 
sibilities. Few of us can be a whole. Can any 
one? We seem compelled to one-sidedness, 
obliged, in order to develop ourselves at all, to 
move strongly in certain directions though know- 
ing that we thus check other worthy aptitudes. 
It is, therefore, perpetually important to bear the 
second clause in mind, "Join a whole." Our 
blessed whole is the teaching profession. Joining 
that, my defects become comparatively unim- 
portant, being supplemented by the powers which 
you possess, which the other man possesses. Each 
of us may bring something from his own experi- 
ence and contribute it to the common stock of 
the teacher's art. In teaching there is no higher, 
no lower. It is all one. Everywhere the same ar- 
tistic conditions are to be met. And each of us, 
in proportion as we do our work wisely, is helping 
all others to do their work also. 

And when the wholeness sought by an individ- 
ual is found in loyal identification of himself with 
the best tendencies of his profession, it is aston- 
ishing what dignity and power become his. The 
process is most easily traced in the case of the 

25 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

soldier. The loafer of the back street enlists, 
puts on the uniform, and goes forth a new man, 
compelling us to wonder how he can be so brave, 
so ready to risk his life for a cause. But do we not 
forget that it is not the individual man who is 
courageous? It is the member of a regiment, the 
wearer of a uniform, to whom the cause is precious. 
So it should be with us soldiers of knowledge. 
We are members of a growing brotherhood, and 
do not teach as soHtary adventurers. We are not 
wise enough for that. It is through our profession 
that we are rendered stout, for from it we get 
and to it we give in indistinguishable degrees. 
Often we must say, "What is there that I have 
not received?" for through union with our 
fellow teachers we become powerful. Since, then, 
we cannot each be a whole, let us join a whole, 
and so attain that dignity, that superiority to our 
own detached selves, which comes only through 
whole-hearted loyalty to our profession. 

Such, I conclude, are the fundamental differ- 
ences between the commercial life and the pro- 
fessional life. The man of commerce possesses 
something which it would pinch him to part with, 
26 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

or he is called on for work which is disagreeable 
to do. To make him a little better off than be- 
fore he claims compensation. The professional 
man, on the other hand, parts with nothing, he 
himself being his only merchandise, and the giv- 
ing of this rather increasing than diminishing his 
precious store. The work asked of him is that 
which he especially delights to do, all the more 
because it assists the needy and unites him with 
a body rich in tradition and progressive temper. 
It is easy to fall into error here and to imagine 
that the professional man is one who is busy with 
mental work, the non-professional with manual. 
But though the intellectual factor is usually 
larger in the professions, there are few of them 
which do not '^require much physical exertion 
and some a high degree of manual dexterity; 
while what is called manual labor continually 
suffers from a lack of the mental alertness which 
should be its regular attendant. No, the distinc- 
tion does not rest on a contrast in the kinds of 
work performed, but on a difference in the atti- 
tude of mind as regards compensation while per- 
forming that work. The kind of payment sought 
27 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

by the professional person is that which Tenny- 
son, in his little poem entitled "Wages/' attrib- 
utes to the virtuous man everywhere: — 

" Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song, 
Paid with a voice flying by, to be lost on an endless sea — 
Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong — 
Nay, but she aimed not at glory, no lover of glory she; 
Give her the glory of going on and still to be." 

That is, the wages we clamor for, the glory of 
going on and still to be. And when, as so often 
happens, we must ask for an increase of salary, 
this is not meant to bring us more riches, fame, 
or even comfort. These were put aside when we 
became teachers. We want the means for bring- 
ing out our powers more fully, for rendering them 
more effective, and for enabling us to hold the 
dignified place in the commimity which our call- 
ing demands. 

But there is one important part of my subject 
1 have not touched yet. How many professions 
are there and what are their names? The great 
four which we ordinarily think of as types of all 
are preaching, teaching, medicine, and the law. 
Nowadays, too, we should probably include under 

2S 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

medicine the admirable labors of the trained 
nurse, and perhaps be inclined to place as a kind 
of intermediary between the minister and the 
lawyer the philanthropist and publicist, as those 
who study the well-being of the community. But 
shall we not, then, be obliged to enlarge our list 
considerably, and include in it the entire field of 
science and art as peculiarly those in which the 
professional spirit is manifest? The painter who 
paints for the money his pictures will bring is no 
artist. He must paint for his own sake, because 
that is what he wants to do and with an under- 
standing of what has been done. Of course he 
must live, and he will be glad when one of his pic- 
tures brings him a large sum, for that will give 
him leisure to paint better still. Just so the 
scientific man joyfully explores unknown fields 
and makes a small contribution to his constantly 
growing science. If he ever comes to wealth, he 
will be equipped for pressing on farther. But, after 
all, he will feel, as Professor Agassiz once said, that 
he cannot afford the time to make money; he 
has more important business in hand than that. 
Such is the professional spirit in science and art, 
29 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

raising the practitioner in these fields at least to 
the level of the doctor or minister. 

But I suspect when we have made the number 
of professions so large, we shall begin to notice 
how within them a professional spirit appears in 
widely varying degrees. It seems more legitimate 
for the architect, the actor, or the novelist to 
look to his gains than it does for the poet or the 
doctor. Even the painter, bargaining over his 
picture, does not shock as does the minister who 
leaves a needy parish for a wealthy one. We 
warmly commend the professional man who is 
indifferent to monetary gain, considering only 
the enjoyment of his work, the benefit it brings 
to others, and his responsibility to his order. But 
we do not expect such indifference of all, ad- 
mitting that there are halfway houses between 
professionalism and commercialism, and that 
highly respectable trading-booths often stand 
on the same ground where artists dwell. Many 
men, and still more women, take up teaching for 
a brief season, not through any taste or fitness 
for it, but because they find in it the readiest 
means of support. They frequently work hard, 
30 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

are entirely frank in acknowledging their pur- 
pose, and should not be lightly condemned. Ne- 
cessity is laid pitiably upon them. Only let us not 
confuse them with what they are not. They are 
not representatives of our arduous profession. 
Excellence does not approach their classroom, and 
they are probably largely responsible for the low 
scale of salaries. As transient traders in know- 
ledge, they compete with those who dedicate 
themselves professionally to teaching, and ap- 
pointing boards are not competent to distinguish 
those who want the salary from those who want 
the work. 

On the other hand, we must have observed 
how many of those who are ostensibly merchants 
are moved by professional impulses. I know a 
man who has always kept a village store. Old 
now and somewhat infirm, he has been obHged 
to sell out his interest in the little estabHshment; 
but still he hobbles to the store every morning 
and goes through the familiar motions there. I 
do not think he makes money out of his atten- 
dance; that is not what he wants. But he cannot 
be qxiite himself without shopkeeping. Americans 
31 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

are said to be ever in pursuit of the dollar, and 
possibly this is true. But in an enormous number 
of cases it is the pursuit that is pursued and not 
the coin. In playing the game, playing it ingeni- 
ously, forcibly, honorably, beneficently, they 
find a fairer field for powers than in any other 
species of activity. Every one here knows happy 
merchants who have become accompHshed 
gentlemen through their work, who have a high 
sense of pubHc responsibility, study how to 
make their business help their city, and take the 
same pride in the quality of the goods they sell 
as you and I do in the way we conducted our 
last lesson. In spite of the newspapers, I find 
these men largely accepting' the third of our pro- 
fessional conditions and recognizing a growing 
brotherhood of trade. They believe in right ways 
of conducting business, respect estabhshed stand- 
ards of trade, and will forfeit personal gain in 
order to conform to such standards. Between 
such tradesmen and members of a profession I 
cannot detect a difference. 

On the whole, then, I am obliged to conclude 
that the kind of work we do does not make us 
32 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

professional men, but the spirit in which we do 
it. There is no fixed number of professions. One 
may be foimd an3rwhere, for professionalism is 
an attitude of mind. Wherever, outrunning the 
desire for personal profit, we find joy in work, 
eagerness for service, and a readiness for co- 
operative progress, there trade has been left 
behind and a profession entered. 

We teachers should count ourselves more favor- 
ably circumstanced than most workers for ac- 
quiring this life-giving professional spirit. Wealth 
can hardly be said to be open to us, anything 
more than a bare living we renounce at the start. 
The difficulties of our marvelous art of thought- 
transference and the intimate relations we hold 
with a multitude of expanding and needy minds 
continually stimulate our interest and our altru- 
ism. So distinct, too, is our business, so sharply 
separating us from those for whom we work, 
and even from the rest of the community, that 
the sense of belonging to a consecrated brother- 
hood comes to us almost as a matter of course. 
Such an attitude of mind is no doubt more diffi- 
cult for those who work confusedly in the mis- 
33 



TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 

cellaneous world. Yet may we not believe that 
our profession is prophetic and presents a type 
toward which all organized society moves? Surely 
when that Kingdom of Heaven for which we 
nightly pray is come, the mad scramble for per- 
sonal profit will cease to enslave us. Each man 
will contentedly accept his special task as that 
in which lies his best opportunity for personal 
expression. Every man, too, will be stud3dng the 
needs of his neighbor as inseparable from his 
own, and will consequently cleave to that neigh- 
bor, sharing with him his inherited knowledge, 
his own experience, and his guiding ideals. In 
those happy days we shall esteem all men of 
good will as our professional brothers, regard- 
less of whether they are teachers, lawyers, scien- 
tists, or business men. 

Believing as I do that teaching is a profession 
which thus illimiinates all life, training us to 
sound method whatever we do, I warmly con- 
gratulate the members of this assembly on hav- 
ing found entrance to an occupation so glorious. 



OUTLINE 

1. The importance of the distinction between a pro- 
fession and a trade 3 

2. Some examples of professional attitude ... 4 

3. The feeling that certain classes should hold them- 
selves aloof from pay 6 

4. The professional and the commercial attitudes 

, toward pay 7 

5. Professional remuneration is designed to secure 
three essential negative conditions of work . . 9 

a. The lack of money deprives the mind of full 
freedom to teach 9 

h. Inadequate remuneration interferes with the 
highest efi&ciency 10 

c. Low pay damages the dignity which exalts . 11 

6. Teachers for the most part are working on a scale 

of salary uneconomical for the community . . la 

a. The salaries which teachers may fairly claim 12 
h. The obligation to raise the salaries of 

teachers 13 

7. The three positive inducements which distinguish 
professional from commercial Hfe 13 

a. The opportunity to exercise our dominant 

powers 14 

(i) The enduring quality of joy in work . 15 
(2) Activity is merely instrumental with 
the man who works for pay . . .17 

35 



OUTLINE 

b. The chance to benefit somebody . . . .18 

(i) The redemptive character of all pro- 
fessions 18 

(2) Altruistic and egoistic profits coin- 
cide in professional work . . . .19 

(3) The fallacy in applying commercial 
measures to professional life . . .20 

c. The power of professional membership . .22 

(i) Each individual is merged in a loyal 
brotherhood 22 

(2) Each draws from and contributes to a 
stock of common knowledge ... 23 

(3) Each attains the dignity of being 
superior to his detached self . . .25 

8. The distinction rests on a difference in the atti- 
tude of mind as regards compensation while per- 
forming work 26 

9. The enlarging number of professions . . . .28 

10. The professional spirit appears in widely varying 
degrees . 30 

11. Even commerce is moved by professional im- 
pulses 31 

12. There is a profession wherever, outrunning the 
desire for personal profit, there is joy in work, 
eagerness for service, and a readiness for coopera- 
tive progress 32 

13. The teaching profession presents a type toward 
which all organized society moves 33 



"RIVERSIDE EDUCATIONAL 
MONOGRAPHS 

GENERAL EDUCATIONAL THEORY 

Dewet's moral principles IN EDUCATION 35 

Eliot's EDUCATION FOB EFFICIENCY 35 

Eliot's CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL IN MODERN EDUCATION 35 

Emerson's EDUCATION 35 

FiSKE's THE MEANING OF INFANCY 36 

Hyde's THE TEACHER'S PHILOSOPHY 36 

Palmer's THE IDEAL TEACHER 36 

Palmer's TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 35 

Peosser's the TEACHER AND OLD AQE 60 

Terman's the TEACHER'S HEALTH 60 

Thobhdikb'3 INDIVIDUALITY 35 

ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS 

Betts's NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS 60 

Bloomfield's VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH 60 

Cabot's VOLUNTEER HELP TO THE SCHOOLS 60 

Cole's INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 35 

Cdbbeeley's CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 85 

Cubberley's the IMPROVEMENT OF RURAL SCHOOLS 85 

Lewis's DEMOCRACY'S HIGH SCHOOL 60 

Perry's STATUS OF THE TEACHER 85 

Snedden's THE PROBLEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 35 

Trowbridge's THE HOME SCHOOL 60 

WsKKS's THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOL 60 

METHODS OF TEACHING 

Bailet's ART EDUCATION 69 

Betts's THE RECITATION 60 

Campagnac's THE TEACHING OF COMPOSITION '.' 35 

CooLE Y's LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE GRADES 35 

Dewey's INTEREST AND EFFORT IN EDUCATION 60 

Eaehart's TEACHING CHILDREN TO STUDY 60 

Evans's THE TEACHING OF HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMA-noS 36 

Fairchild's THE TEACHING OF POETRY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL 60 

Freeman's THE TEACHING OF HANDWRITING 60 

Halibueton and Smith's TEACHING POETRY IN THE GRADES 60 

Hartwell's THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 36 

Haynes's ECONOMICS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 60 

Hill's THE TEACHING OF CIVICS 60 

KiLPATRicK's THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM EXAMINED 35 

Palmer's ETHICAL AND MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS.. .36 

Palmer's SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH 36 

SnzzALLO's THE TEACHING OF PRIMARY ARITHMETIC 60 

SdzzallC 8 THE TEACHING OP SPELLING tO 

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